Former JPMorgan analyst Sheryl Xue H Teo is bringing Wall Street-style analysis to social media marketing.

After spending seven years at the bank’s investment management division, she ventured into entrepreneurship with an e-commerce experiment that unexpectedly revealed the power of micro-influencers.

“I was about to close the Shopify store when one day I woke up, and we had $2,000 in sales,” Sheryl says. “It was actually from one influencer who contacted me on Instagram. She had 5,000 followers and asked, ‘Can you send me a bag? I’ll post for free.’” That single post generated $4,000 in sales within 24 hours.

This development led Sheryl to approach influencer marketing systematically. Within the first month, she activated 40 to 50 influencers and started getting 7xROAS. “I became very good at predicting what influencers will blow up [and] what influencers can get you very good pricing,” she notes.

Sheryl’s ability to identify arbitrage opportunities in the creator marketplace prompted her to launch Popcorn Growth, a TikTok-first influencer marketing agency.

The San Francisco-based firm focuses on engagement metrics like saves and shares rather than traditional measures like likes and follower counts. 

“With the same budget that you can spend with other agencies, with Popcorn Growth, I’m going to get you 5x what you get from other agencies,” Sheryl says. 

Rather than chasing viral moments, the company aims for sustainable, long-term growth. This methodology attracts major household brands seeking to modernize their social media presence while maintaining brand safety. 

Sheryl distinguishes this from the typical startup mindset: “I come from the e-commerce world where I hope something goes viral. [But] we’re not as good at ‘let me try and help you make one video go viral.’ The way we define success is: are you going to be consistently improving your presence and your metrics on TikTok? Can we guarantee you sustainable success over the long run?”

Popcorn Growth secured its first client through Sheryl’s connections in San Francisco’s Y Combinator network before it even had a name. The firm now handles monthly budgets of $50,000 per brand, using proprietary algorithms to optimize influencer selection and pricing and delivering outsized returns.

Where Data Meets Creator Empowerment

Unlike traditional agencies led by marketing or creative professionals, Popcorn Growth approaches influencer marketing from a data and operations perspective.

“People from traditional marketing backgrounds do not build us,” Sheryl explains. “It’s ingrained in our DNA that we don’t see ourselves as creatives. We see the creators and the influencers as the creators, which is extremely important as a paradigm shift as we move towards social media platforms where creativity is democratized.”

This philosophy has proven attractive to enterprise clients, who often require innovation and risk management. 

To ensure brand safety, the company implements rigorous vetting processes, including background checks on creators. Most contracts span one to two years, reflecting the long-term partnerships the agency builds with its clients.

Popcorn Growth can activate 50 to 100 influencers monthly for a single brand, treating each creator as a one-stop creative house– creative director, producer, scriptwriter, editor, producer, and publisher all rolled into one single creator. 

“I can have 50 creative directors producing 50 unique videos for whichever client we’re working with monthly,” Sheryl says. “We’re not thinking about how we tell them to be creative. We’re thinking about how we help them be more creative.”

Reimagining Brand Marketing for TikTok

Popcorn Growth has developed a distinctive methodology that marries traditional brand marketing with performance marketing discipline. The agency’s approach diverges significantly from conventional influencer marketing strategies, mainly when working with established brands adapting to TikTok’s creator-driven ecosystem.

“We play in the brand world, but we apply performance marketing discipline into branding,” Sheryl explains. “We always start with 30 to 50 influencers every month. We divide them by different messaging and creative verticals, then get the data on which creator verticals and messaging worked best.”

This data-oriented approach has proven particularly effective, with clients typically seeing significant results within six months, according to Sheryl. “You see that beautiful J curve where whatever they’re optimizing for starts to have that hockey stick thing,” she notes. 

The company’s success has led to most clients signing 12-month retainers, allowing sufficient time to gather meaningful data and optimize campaigns. 

However, the transition hasn’t been without challenges, particularly when working with legacy brands accustomed to traditional marketing approaches. 

“They’re very used to being prescriptive,” Sheryl says. “We went from a world where the influencer is instructed to specifically rub the face cleanser 20 times to understanding that creators know their audiences best.”

The shift in brand attitudes reflects a broader development in social media marketing. As Sheryl observes, “The question has shifted from ‘why TikTok?’ to ‘how TikTok?’ Everyone’s understood that it’s a necessity.” 

Popcorn Growth is thus focusing on educating brands about creator autonomy while maintaining brand safety and message consistency. The company’s data becomes valuable beyond TikTok, with clients applying insights across their marketing channels. 

“A lot of our clients almost come to us and see us as buying the data,” Sheryl says. “They use that data, apply it to TV and other channels, and send it back to their creative team.”

Measuring What Matters in Creator Marketing

Popcorn Growth’s analytical approach extends to measuring campaign success, focusing on metrics that indicate deeper audience engagement rather than surface-level interactions. 

The agency positions itself as a top-of-funnel catalyst in the marketing ecosystem, prioritizing brand awareness and audience connection over immediate sales conversion.

“We don’t look at the number of likes at all,” Sheryl reveals. “We live in a world of likes-inflation. Give the number of saves and shares a lot more attention because it shows intention.” 

This focus stems from the company’s extensive testing showing correlations between these engagement metrics and eventual purchasing behavior. The approach has proven particularly effective in identifying high-performing micro-influencers, with Sheryl noting cases of creators with “less than 10,000 followers getting 2,000-3,000 saves on a video.”

Popcorn Growth is expanding beyond its TikTok-first strategy to adapt to broader shifts in content consumption. “TikTok has changed how people consume content and think about entertainment,” Sheryl observes.